Trap a bunch of sports enthusiasts in a room for 12 hours, starting at 5 p.m., and by the time 5 a.m. rolls around all you have is a veritable circus.
That's something I've discovered during these past five or six nights on this shift. It's not like working the graveyard shift at the TV station, which I did once upon a time. Sure, I've had my phone calls from Nightly News and MSNBC about this fact or that, but eventually the calls die down. I create spreadsheets, hit the free Starbucks in the commissary (which I've now been told I pronounce wrong because I put the accent on the SECOND syllable), and visit my best friend and Bolles alumn Casey Barrett, who writes for the Primetime show with Bob Costas, the one all of you watch at night when you see finals.
Anyhow, this is a short post and an invitation to check out this link. It's the "Beijing Welcomes You" song, which the whole room sang together, in Chinese, about 10 minutes ago. And yes, for 12 hours, these are the people that NBC counts on to provide the entire web of networks with the most accurate information for reporting on these Olympic Games.